Oh Lord, Arsenal May Have A Title Winning Team

After yesterday’s 3:0 thumping of the oilers of Manchester by the financially invigorated Arsenal, both the commercial media and the army of “wannabes” on twitter are having a hard time putting a spin on the event without losing hold of a comfortable narrative they already sewed.

Pre-game, the consensus was to grudgingly admit that Arsenal now had money to spend but they didn’t acquire the right players. These were the exact words of Robbie Earle, ex-pro, now doing punditry for NBC Sports Network in the US. According to experts like him, Arsenal had simply replaced Sagna with Debuchy, added a back-up right back with Calum Chambers and Alexis Sanchez is simply a luxury purchase who is not the big clinical central striker needed by the club.

Other pundits have a slightly different variation from the theme. Their spin is, it is good and well to spend on a striker but Arsenal will not win the title if they fail to bring in a “monster” defensive midfielder to sit in front of the back-four. Pointedly they claim Mikel Arteta is too old, slow and lightweight to do the job. To support their argument they reprise with glee those big losses last season to Chelsea, Liverpool and City, conveniently glossing over the fact that Arteta didn’t play in the City game and that he was instrumental in helping the club win two of three games against Liverpool.

As usual Wenger and Mikel failed to read the script. After a masterful performance vs City, dominating as the deepest lying central-midfielder, our handsome Spaniard was named team captain for the 2014-15 season.

The table was therefore well set for the weekend’s narrative; should Arsenal win the game it would be inconsequential as it was pre-season and most of City’s top players were missing, and if we lost it would be further proof of our inability to beat any of the teams in the top-three which by the way was the only reason we failed to win the title last year, not the injuries to our top players i.e. Ramsey then Walcott.

Unfortunately for the pundits, they have a long track record of underestimating the modern Arsenal. Eighteen (18) years ago they ridiculed the appointment as manager of the bespectacled Frenchman with the famous headline by the Evening Standard “Arsene Who?” Before the 2002-03 season, Arsene-Who had the temerity to suggest “Nobody will finish above us in the league. It wouldn’t surprise me if we were to go unbeaten for the whole of the season.” We all know how that went in 2003-04.

I would therefore suggest the best man to give a proper assessment of our performance is Wenger himself:

“I felt we had a complete performance in the first half as long as we had the legs to sustain what we wanted to do. In the second half our togetherness and the third goal got us through. We defended well, we lost a bit more of the ball than in the first half and our movements were less fluent but we kept the spirit and organisation.”

In terms of forecasting the season he opined:

“I have more attacking options than I had for a long time – that’s for sure. Three, four, five years ago, every year we lost a big player. In the last two years, we added players like Ozil and this season like Alexis so of course that strengthens the squad. I am of course very ambitious but I’m a bit cautious because I have quite a good experience. I look around and see the other teams have strengthened as well so it will be interesting to watch the Premier League because it looks like all the big teams will be very strong.”

As for Crystal Palace:

“To win today gives us a positive platform to prepare but now the Premier League starts and we have to start well at home because it’s a derby, it’s a very uncomfortable team [we face in Crystal Palace]. It will be a different kind of game as well.”

In terms of additional transfers:

“What it does in my head is [make me think that] Chambers is among the best three and if I can find another one I will do it. But to find another one of that quality will not be easy because… Vermaelen left us and had the choice between two massive clubs. That means these clubs have looked everywhere as well and that means it’s not easy to find.”

Can Wenger be any clearer? How much more can the spin doctors, moaners and mischief makers cloudy the water as we enter into the new season. Stay tuned.

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78 comments on “Oh Lord, Arsenal May Have A Title Winning Team”

Great piece Shotta, and although Arsene did say he would bring someone in if he can’t immediately our options still include Nacho, Miguel and Ajayi as fourth choice cover hopefully for only a couple of games. To be honest although everyone is saying we will still make another signing this is the point at which it gets difficult and Arsene doesn’t panic buy just ask sir Alan

NB: “I didn’t say what I’d seen suggested we were weak in defence, my observation was in numbers if we were to suffer a long term injury to either Kos or the BFG. And as you confirmed in this phrase:”

“Wenger clearly thinks that we need another CB.”

Except we’re not weak in numbers compared to the other top teams in the league. City have Kompany, a thirty three year old Demichelis and Sagna who can fill in at CB. Beyond these three, the decline in quality is very steep. Mangala, Boyata and Nastasic are nowhere near premiership level defenders. Chelsea have Cahill, a thirty three year old Terry and Ivanovic who can cover in the middle. Like City, they have a bunch of kids who haven’t been tested in the league. I shouldn’t have to even mention Liverpool or Man United because their defences were shit last season and they did nothing to fix their problems.

Wenger says he may add cover at CB, but that’s not the most urgent need the squad has at the moment.

NB: “But at CB…. Kos/BFG/Chambers……… that is the weak link. Lose one to injury and one to a red card, looks very dodgy.”

Really? Terry and Demichelis are much more certain to be out this season just because of their age, never mind niggles or other injuries. When Terry or Demichelis are out, that leaves them vulnerable at two or three positions. Because if Sagna and Ivanovic get suspended, each of them has to play a kid in the middle. Further, they have to pray that Zabaleta and Azpilicueta don’t go down as well. In Chelsea’s case, if they lose Zabaleta, they are vulnerable at LB as well.

Foreverheady: “It must be really hard to persuade someone to come to you to be cover for a pairing like Kosper (and not even guaranteed bench cover if you have Swiss Army Knife Chambers to call on) unless you can pay them silly money to do so. And if they are willing to come on that basis then are they what we want – and are they guaranteed better than Hayden and Miquel?”

Elaquim Mangala, Kurt Zouma, Nathan Aken, Nastasic and Boyata are no better than Miquel or Hayden. Mangala, in particular, exemplifies the silly money aspect of this argument perfectly. He wasn’t very good at Porto, which is natural because he was young, but Man City paid £30m for him anyway.

I have to say opposition fans could as easily write off chambers as we do nastasic and mangala. I’m not sure about the later but the former looks like he will be decent to me.

You know who would be good…. gröskruetz (spelling) from dortmund. He can play anywhere and is just so so good.unfortunately he’s dortmund through and through been going to games since he was a boy. Therefore quite a fucking redundant post this but did It stop me. Did it buggery.

I only hope you are right but only time will tell. I would willingly admit to being wrong if our current defensive options get through the whole season without injury and manage to do a job without AW buying reinforcements.

On point as usual, sg. The moaners are running out of stuff to moan about thick and fast. It’s the same stuff every year innit? It’s quite nice that we have moved up from the likes of Lorik Cana and Felipe Melo though and are now talking about the likes of Pogba and Khedira. Full credit to Arsene for that no doubt but I’m not so sure we need this elusive DM everyone is pining for. My money is on Jack doing a Rambo this year and cementing his place slowly but surely. I liked the look of him against City and think he’s got big things in store for us.

Like many I too was clucking as Koscielny came off and Monreal came on to play in the unfamiliar role. But he alright and fully deserved his medal!

Would the coaches want to try out the nacho man at CB in order to keep him ‘match fit’ during the season, assuming that the left sided role will be very competitive with the forwards and he might not come on to close out games as frequently as last season? Just a thought.

Koscielny should have never been to France. That he went, shows how desperate Deschamps was. City just paid £30 million pounds for a player who was too shit to replace Sakho and Varane. Let that marinate in your pots and pans.

Hours behind here, but I wanted to say good job to Shotts for taking my 140 characters of disgust with Robbie Earle and turning it into a damn fine blog. Earle’s statement on NBC’s Premier League preview show went something like this. “With apologies to Arsenal fans, I just don’t think Arsenal have spent the right way this summer. They haven’t improved.” Idiot.

mangala is not that bad. he is a decent defender. better than demichelis and will surely start ahead of him. france have so many central defender that you have to be good to get among the world cup squad. barca new french defender didnt even get a call up.
the only disgusting thing about mangala is the price. he is not more than 20m. nastastic is decent as well. i wont mind if wenger replace verm with the serb. having him and calum to understudy per and kos while bellerin is allowed to grow into the right back will definitely encourage the youth team and academy players that they can still grow into the first team if they are good enough.